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“Alternative for Germany, or AfD, became the first far-right party to win a state election in post-World War II Germany in Thuringia on Sunday under one of its hardest-right figures, Björn Höcke. In neighboring Saxony, it finished only just behind the mainstream center-right Christian Democratic Union, which leads the national opposition. Voters punished the three parties in [Chancellor Olaf] Scholz’s governing coalition, which took well under 15% of the vote between them.” AP News
The left condemns the AfD, and argues that mainstream parties need to take voters’ concerns more seriously.
“The party leader [in Thuringia], Bjorn Hocke, has twice been convicted of using a banned Nazi slogan, ‘Everything for Germany.’ Early this year, it was reported that party officials and neo-Nazis had plotted to deport millions of immigrants and German citizens of foreign origin. This spring, the top AfD candidate for the European Parliament said every member of the SS — Hitler’s spearhead in carrying out the Holocaust — was not ‘automatically a criminal.’…
“Even among other far-right populists ascendant across Europe, the AfD has been shunned, too toxic for France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and other anti-immigrant blocs to include in their alliance in the European Parliament. That might be the scariest thing: In Germany, the AfD’s pariah status seems to be working.”
Lee Hockstader, Washington Post
Some argue, “The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has led to spiking energy prices that have impacted the German economy significantly… [The government] has responded with a crisis management consisting of economic interventionism on behalf of companies, wage restraint, and the immiseration of the population by refusing to enact price controls in response to growing inflation…
“The consequence: while large companies recorded major profits, workers’ real wages fell to the level of 2015, wiping out a decade of wage growth. With most people having already for decades not meaningfully benefited from the considerable economic growth rates, society was ripe for major discontent. However, German society has mostly expressed their discontent in blaming immigrants…
“With considerable poverty and feelings of inadequacy due to persistent inequality between western and eastern Germany, it has been especially easy to pit immigrant and German workers against each other there. Meanwhile, most collective structures have been dissolved through austerity in the wake of the annexation in 1990, allowing the AfD to more easily grow and try to establish itself as a ‘Volkspartei’ (mass party).”
Felix Helberg, Jacobin Magazine
“Where is the consternation in the mainstream parties over the loss of trust from vast swathes of the population?… Ask Germans what their main concerns are. Immigration tops the list, followed by energy prices, war and the economy. The word I heard over and over again in recent months was angst…
“These are uncomfortable topics to discuss, especially for left-leaning parties, but discussing them is exactly what they must do instead of handing a monopoly over those issues to the AfD. That is not the same as plunging into populism. If centrists don’t start a constructive debate on sensitive issues, nobody will. The response to the regional elections must be more than preventing a far-right takeover. This is a belated wake-up call for Germany’s mainstream parties. I hope it will be heard loud and clear in Berlin.”
Katja Hoyer, The Guardian
The right is divided about the AfD.
The right is divided about the AfD.
Some argue, “How radical is the AfD platform on immigration?… [Their platform states that] Germany is by no means a classic immigration country, least of all a target of mass migration as seen in 2015. In spite of this, migration into Germany has occurred for decades. Germany has turned into an immigration country without any legal framework. Canada and Australia set good examples of how these countries manage immigration with social and employment considerations in mind…
“The AfD platform is realistic with regard to the mass influx of ‘refugees’… It is necessary to make a distinction between political refugees and people fleeing from war on the one hand, and irregular migrants on the other. It is the AfD’s view that true refugees should be granted shelter as long as there is war in the countries of origin. Irregular migrants, who are not persecuted, have no right to claim protection…
“For years, Europe’s political and cultural elites have tried to rule opposition to mass third world immigration out of bounds, ostracizing leaders and parties who object to their obviously failed immigration policies as ‘far right.’ But despite their views being suppressed by nearly every means short of incarceration, it is evident that those parties represent the majority opinion on immigration in most western European countries.”
John Hinderaker, Power Line
Others posit, “[Similar] parties typically—and misleadingly—are labeled ‘far right’ in Europe, but in AfD’s case it’s apt. Party leaders have become embroiled in scandals in recent months over sympathetic comments about Hitler’s SS and parroting a Nazi slogan, amid other signs of trouble…
“Much of the explanation is the failure of mainstream parties to get a grip on issues that vex voters, immigration above all. Roughly one-third of voters in each state named immigration and asylum policy as the most important problem in an exit poll… Another sore point is support for Ukraine. In Thuringia, the AfD’s heartland, 54% of respondents in an exit poll said they think Western states should offer less military support to Kyiv.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“In all the news about the AfD, it’s important… not to lose sight of how the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (the BSW, which is more or less a one-woman band) did. In various areas, from Ukraine to immigration to green deindustrialization, its policies overlap to a considerable degree with those of the AfD, an example of the horseshoe theory in operation…
“The BSW did well, coming third in Thuringia, with 15.8 percent of the vote, ahead of the ‘traditional’ far-left Die Linke (13.1 percent) from whom Wagenknecht broke off in January… Wagenknecht (a former — she says — admirer of Stalin) has said that, like the establishment parties, she will not work with the AfD. But will she work with the establishment parties, and will they work with her? And if they will, what will that say about them?”
Andrew Stuttaford, National Review
